Lessons for Living (Audio)

There are a lot of people who attend church. There are churches that boast attendance figures of twenty or even thirty thousand! Those are pretty impressive numbers. The logical question then to ask is, “Are these church attenders influencing their communities?” If one were to look at the larger American society, the answer might be, “No”. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the need for the Christ follower to commit their life totally to God. You’ll learn what making this commitment means, and the costs and the benefits that will

Throughout the Bible it’s apparent that God’s always wanted to have a personal relationship with man. He hung out with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Throughout the Old Testament, He would appear on occasion to men like Abraham and Jacob. And, of course, He capped that off by becoming a man – Jesus! Pastor Mark will be teaching about this desire that God has, even today, to be an intimate part of your life. You’ll hear about the attributes of God that He wants to make evident in your life, and you’ll learn what you have to do to begin or enhance that relationship with Him.

Do you ever get the feeling that your life isn’t quite what you think a follower of Christ’s life should be like? You read the stories in the Bible and some of those people’s lives seem so much more dynamic than yours – it feels like something’s missing from your life. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the lives of some of the people in the book of Acts. You’ll hear about the way they carried on in their lives and the impact they had on those around them. Pastor Mark will be talking about why the lives of the apostles became different after Jesus’ ascension, and how you can tap into what they had.

Have you ever seen couples over the years who just kind of stay the same? They say the same phrases to each other, they just…don’t change – and not in a good way? Pastor Mark will be teaching that God never intended marriage to be like being mummified. He intended marriage to be an adventure, more fun than doing things alone. You’ll hear about your need to be honest with God and with your spouse. You’ll be reminded that your priority needs to be the same as the one God wants you to have. Most of all, you need to learn to make God your top priority – the rest will fall in line once you do that.

There are lots of people giving “relationship advice” these days. Most of them will tell the aggrieved partner that they need to focus on making sure their own needs are met first. Unfortunately, this advice doesn’t often seem to work. Pastor Mark will be teaching that the “me first” advice fails because it’s not the way the relationship was designed to work in the first place. Without pursuing a relationship with God as the primary relationship, other bonds will be less than they could be. You’ll hear from Pastor Mark how to get right with God, then how to fix your spousal relationship.

It’s easy to forget that as a Christ follower you’re in a battle, a war. Every day, every minute, there’s an organized effort to get you to reduce your devotion to Jesus. The world you live in hates God – hates everything about God. Pastor Mark will be teaching about the need for you to stay aware of this, and to strengthen your resistance to the world’s efforts to influence you. He’ll tell you how you can start to become a more devoted Christ follower, beginning to influence those around you and showing people that there’s a viable lifestyle option to how they’re currently living.

Most Christians in America have grown up with the idea that all they have to do to be right with God is to do something like pray the Sinner’s Prayer, and then it’s all good. But they might be frustrated because they don’t see any real change in their lives – the issues that bothered them prior to salvation haven’t gone away; in fact, they might be worse. Pastor Mark will be teaching today that this is because they haven’t really done what Jesus told them to do. You’ll discover that being a Christ follower is more than just saying words; there are actions and activities that you’re to do as well.

The world is full of people who are dying without Jesus. They’re following false religions of many types, just living their lives the best they know how. And in America, young people who’ve grown up in the church reject Christianity as adults. Why is that? Pastor Mark will be teaching the reasons for these happenings. He’ll be talking about the failure of Christ followers to actually be Christ followers. You’ll find out what it is you as a believer in Jesus should be doing, as well as how to do it. He’ll be showing you how to become obedient to the commands of Jesus to reach out to the world with the truth that can save them.

People in the world are so lost. They’re trying all kinds of ideas, hoping to find an anchor for their souls to keep them from being completely shipwrecked on the shores of life. They’re trying to think of something that will help them make sense of the world and their place in it. Pastor Mark will be teaching about Jesus, the solution to their problem. You’ll hear about the state of man spiritually and how Jesus came to remedy the situation. You’ll learn that just hearing about Jesus isn’t enough – you have to put what you’ve learned into practice every day, to make you a stronger Christ follower.

People are always looking for an easier way to do things, right? Sometimes that’s a good thing – using a roto-tiller is far easier than breaking ground up using a spade, isn’t it? And so people try to find easier ways to increase spiritual growth, too. But Pastor Mark will be teaching today that God doesn’t provide shortcuts – the only way to become a more mature Christ follower is by doing the hard work. Pastor Mark will be giving you instructions on how God says you have to grow in Him. You’ll discover that if you can stick it out, that the benefits will be more than you can imagine.